How does Eth bug work?

If I use a socket recipe on ANY eth item, the item will get another 50% bonus? Also, is it a straight +50% of the original def, or +50% of the eth def? If it is a weapon, does the weapon get more damage? I've only heard of people using this on armors.

Does the eth bug only work when you use a socket recipe? Socket quest does NOT work right?

If I use a socket recipe on ANY eth item, the item will get another 50% bonus? Also, is it a straight +50% of the original def, or +50% of the eth def? If it is a weapon, does the weapon get more damage? I've only heard of people using this on armors.

Does the eth bug only work when you use a socket recipe? Socket quest does NOT work right?

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The socket bug will only work on socketable armors, not weapons.
Take an example, say you got a 667 defence ethereal archon plate, when you use the socket recipe with it, the outcome will be 1000 defence archon plate with 1-4 socket. (667 x 1.5 = 1000, ie the ethereal bonus is applied on the armor again.)
Add: Socket recipe WON'T work.

The bug requires all the following conditions to occur :
- The item must be a helm, body armor or shield (including class-specific ones)
- The item must be ethereal
- The socketing must be done through the Horadric cube formula only (no Larzuk)

Now let's imagine your base armor is a 600 Def Sacred Armor
When it's ethereal, it gets a natural 50% enhanced defense, making it 900 Def.
Now with the bug, yet another 50% is applied, making it 900*1.5 = 1350 Def.

Everything that has more defense than an Archon plate is WAY too heavy even for mercs at a reasonable level. So, if I get an Eth Archon plate, use the cube recipe on it and get 4 sockets, and then make a Fortitude armor out of it for my merc, and then my merc gets hit enough to cast one of the cold armors, then his defense would be... 0_0

Everything that has more defense than an Archon plate is WAY too heavy even for mercs at a reasonable level.

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Mercs (excluding the Act 1 and 3 ones) usually have a lot of strength, enough for them to be able to wear Forts made in higher requirement armors. It's not unusual to see a Shadow Plate or Loricated Mail eth Forts made for mercs.

Regarding Mercs (at least Act 2 ones), remember that you will likely work them up to Andariel's Visage as their helm (best merc helm around in my opinion). This has an extra 25-30 str as a bonus. A nightmare Act 2 merc (might/holy freeze auras being the most popular) will have natural str of 195 by the time your character is lvl 90 (and he is too). So with Andy's visage your merc will have 220-225 str to play with. Also, ethereal items have lowered requirements as well as the nifty defence/damage bonuses. I'll need to refer to the number crunchers to see how much the requirement is lowered or if it is variable.

But this is all to say that your merc is quite capable of wearing essentially any elite armor. I bought an eth glitched sacred armor off of someone recently that had about 1225 defence (and, I think, a 220 str req or thereabouts). That made a truly righteous fortitude I tell ya! Admittedly, an armor with that high a str level will be one you can only use on your main mf character that you play all the time...

Here's a follow-up question, though. I bought a couple of eth armors for cheap in the hopes of glitching them myself. I got a 1os and 3os - doh!! Seems like I've read somewhere that if you find an eth elite armor at too low of an area level, it can be incapable of receiving all four sockets? Is that true?

1) Don't have a Andy visage, but that's not the main point...
2) I consider level 77 to be end-game. In other words, what's the point of finally being able to wear that kickass armor if you've already finished the game and did 50 baal runs to level up so you'll meet the requirements? I make most if not all of my gear considerations with that in mind. I'll stick with the Archon plate.

I see your point, and there's a lot of fun to getting a host of characters through hell so you can see how they all play (not to mention the nifty socket and forge quests along the way ^_^). Many folks have one or two characters that they level to 90 without too much trouble as they play them in mfing or key runs. My light sorc, for example, hit lvl 90 after a couple of weeks without doing anything dedicated. I just use her a lot to rush my other characters or public folks for their forge quest, key runs, killing the bosses over and over for loot, etc...

But, yes, if you're not going beyond lvl 77 (merc will have 172 str at lvl 77) or so and you're not using str enhanced weapons or helm (or you just want to keep all your options open), then you don't want to runeword the four heaviest armors. With the lowered str reqs on an ethereal armor, though, you're still fine up to and including Kraken Shell. And putting a fortitude in a low str armor has the wonderful benefit of letting you use it when your low level character needs the tanking the most.

Of course, the type of armor you use on your merc isn't going to matter a huge amount anyway. Even a dusk shroud's mid range def is 410. Ethereal and glitched takes that to 922. A mid-range Sacred armor is going to hit 1222, so there's not that much difference. I just hate to spend those high runes on anything but a fantastic piece of metal, ya know?

Here's a follow-up question, though. I bought a couple of eth armors for cheap in the hopes of glitching them myself. I got a 1os and 3os - doh!! Seems like I've read somewhere that if you find an eth elite armor at too low of an area level, it can be incapable of receiving all four sockets? Is that true?

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No. By the time you meet a monster who is high enough to drop the elite item, it's mlvl has reached a point where the subsequent ilvl of the item will be high enough to get the max sockets. I mean, even the lowest of elite armor's (the dusk shroud) will still have an ilvl of around 62 if dropped by the first creature that's capable of dropping it. Even a bone knife or falcata (arguably the lowest elite weapons) will have an ilvl of around 52 if dropped by the first creature capable of dropping them.